President Obama's Speech to the Democrat National Convention

I think "four more years" will just about do this country in. And boy, was this a terrible speech or what?

The full clip is here.

And the Wall Street Journal reports, "Obama Presses Plan for U.S. Resurgence: Goals Are Scaled Back From Sweeping Proposals in 2008":

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—President Barack Obama portrayed himself as a stout defender of the middle class and a leader with a plan to create jobs across the U.S. economy in a speech Thursday accepting the Democratic nomination for re-election.

The president hoped to offer voters more specifics than his Republican foe, laying out a set of goals for a second term designed to demonstrate he has started rebuilding a ravaged economy and has a strategy for going further.

The goals, most of which echo those previously set by Mr. Obama, provided a message aimed to ease the economic anxieties of Americans during the last stretch of the campaign.

"I'm asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country," Mr. Obama said. He cited ambitions to create manufacturing jobs, slow the growth of college tuition and bolster trade. He called them "real, achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation."

"That's what we can do in the next four years," he said.

The president's prime-time address capped a three-day convention that focused on the economic struggles of the middle class. Democrats used the convention to argue that Mr. Obama had put the country on a path to recovery and deserved more time.

President Obama, pledging to expand jobs and lift the middle class, accepted his party's nomination for re-election

"America has turned the corner," Vice President Joe Biden said, taking the stage before Mr. Obama. He added: "The work of recovery is not yet complete, but we are on our way."

Mr. Obama's goals reflected a shrunken vision compared with the sweeping plans of his 2008 speech accepting his party's presidential nomination, which had included "affordable, accessible health care for every single American," immigration reform and "energy independence"...

Continue reading.

And see Instapundit for some of the responses. And Gateway Pundit especially, "Krauthammer Pans Obama’s Speech: 'He Gave One of the Emptiest Speeches I’ve Ever Heard on a National Stage'."

Added: From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "The 2008 Messiah Has Left the Building." And at Legal Insurrection, "Composite acceptance speech." (At Memeorandum.)

'Rhiannon'

From Tuesday afternoon's drive-time, at The Sound L.A.

And according to Wikipedia's song entry:

During 1975–1980, Fleetwood Mac's live performances of "Rhiannon" took on a theatrical intensity not present on the FM-radio single. The song built to a climax in which Nicks' vocals were so impassioned that, as drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood said, "her Rhiannon in those days was like an exorcism."

4:22 - My Sweet Lord by George Harrison

4:27 - La Grange by Zz Top

4:30 - I'm On Fire by Bruce Springsteen

4:33 - Come Sail Away by Styx

4:38 - Dance Little Sister Dance by Rolling Stones

4:42 - Dance The Night Away by Van Halen

4:45 - Evil Woman by E.L.O.

4:55 - Hold The Line by Toto

4:59 - I Need To Know by Tom Petty

5:01 - Moondance by Van Morrison

5:07 - Rock & Roll (live) by Led Zeppelin

5:10 - Trampled Under Foot (live) by Led Zeppelin

5:19 - The Ocean (live) by Led Zeppelin

5:24 - Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac

I'll have more blogging later...

Conflict Ivory

This is just sad all around.

At the New York Times, "Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits":

Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter. Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the underground ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized.

Like blood diamonds from Sierra Leone or plundered minerals from Congo, ivory, it seems, is the latest conflict resource in Africa, dragged out of remote battle zones, easily converted into cash and now fueling conflicts across the continent.

Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Shabab and Darfur’s janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons and sustain their mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world, exploiting turbulent states, porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law enforcement officials say.

But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the American government trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and newly independent South Sudan’s military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in ivory.

Congolese soldiers are often arrested for it. South Sudanese forces frequently battle wildlife rangers. Interpol, the international police network, is now helping to investigate the mass elephant killings in the Garamba park, trying to match DNA samples from the animals’ skulls to a large shipment of tusks, marked “household goods,” recently seized at a Ugandan airport.

The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent — is flowing to China, and though the Chinese have coveted ivory for centuries, never before have so many of them been able to afford it. China’s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory to a stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing.

High-ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army have a fondness for ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese online forums offer a thriving, and essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings, cups and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory in tinfoil, says one Web site, to throw off X-ray machines).

Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from Kenya to Nigeria, for smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where Chinese construction workers are building roads.

“China is the epicenter of demand,” said Robert Hormats, a senior State Department official. “Without the demand from China, this would all but dry up.”

Continue reading.

This is a story that raises a number of issues in political science, of international law and politics, and comparative political and the political economy of development.

It's interesting that China's the source of almost all demand for ivory, and I wonder if pressure from the U.S. could work to curtail it. Mostly though, even though a small amount of ivory is worth more than a month of the average man's pay in Africa, I simply don't understand how anyone could kill those animals in such a way.

Python at Chester Zoo Gives Keepers Struggle

That's one hella snake.

At Telegraph UK, "Python struggles with zoo keepers in annual check":

Six brave volunteers at Chester Zoo help with holding a 23ft-long python who gets a heart check-up.

Team Romney Calls Out Obama on Democrat Party Nazi Slurs

You know, because the Dems are all about civility.

At Althouse, "If Obama's call for "civility... is to be taken seriously," says Romney, stop ... comparing your opponents to Nazis."

Freedom to Blog Update September 6, 2012

It's been awhile since I've updated, but this story's as vital as ever.

At Aaron Worthing's, "Twitter Fascists Try to Silence The Blogger’s Defense Team."

And at Bob Belvedere's, "The #BrettKimberlin Report D+103: Chicken Little’s Sky Is Falling."

Previous entries are here.

Bill Clinton Speech to the Democrat National Convention

Well, FWIW, here's the New York Times' report, "Clinton Delivers Stirring Plea for Obama Second Term."

And check the related items at Instapundit.

Elizabeth Warren Hammered Over Ethnic Indian Claims

At the New York Times, "For Warren, Bad Blood Over Ethnic Claims":

Karen Geronimo, a member of the Mescalero Apache tribe in town for the Democratic convention, knows what she wants from Elizabeth Warren, the Senate candidate from Massachusetts: a blood sample.

“Someone needs to make her take a DNA test,” said Ms. Geronimo, whose husband, Harlyn Geronimo, is the great-grandson of the legendary warrior Geronimo.

The still-simmering controversy over Ms. Warren’s self-proclaimed American Indian heritage has chased her from the campaign trail in Massachusetts to the convention hall, resonating with a small but vocal constituency: American Indian Democrats.

During her academic career, Ms. Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, identified herself as a minority, citing her one thirty-second Cherokee blood, a fact that Republicans pounced on to try to portray her as an opportunist and a fraud. The line on her résumé does not seem to set well with some Indian members of her own party.

“If you’re going to be Native, don’t just be Native on paper,” said Lexie LaMere, a Nebraska delegate and member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. “What’s troubling is that she’s shown nothing in her history of being involved in Native American issues.”

Mr. Geronimo, wearing a “Native Americans for Obama” button, said he was disappointed when he first heard of Ms. Warren’s claim.

“She needed leverage to further her career and started digging,” he said. Ms. Warren brushed aside reporters who asked about the concerns on Wednesday, saying: “I’ve answered those questions. I’m here to talk about what’s happening to America’s working-class families. That’s my job. It’s my full-time job.”

Still, she may want to avoid bumping into Indians around the hall. Jim La Pointe, the great-grandnephew of Crazy Horse and a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, had a test in mind for Ms. Warren.

“I’d like to hear her speak her native language,” he said with a sly smile.

VIDEO CREDIT: Legal Insurrection.

Elizabeth Warren Speech to the Democrat National Convention

Everything is rigged. The middle class is getting hammered. And Fauxcahontas is leading the charge!

Actually, William Jacobson is unimpressed:

Warren’s speech was flat, didn’t come across well on television, she wasn’t on her game. Kept talking about people rigging system. No rock star status tonight.

Sandra Fluke Speech to the Democrat National Convention

The Democrats' ultimate infanticide tool:

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Fluke: GOP positions 'offensive, obsolete relic' of past."

More at Jill Stanek's, "Politico: Democrats forced to switch strategies because abortion now a losing issue."

BONUS: At the New York Times, "At the Democratic Convention, an Emphasis on Social Issues."

Welcome to the Democrat Convention!

From Alan Caruba, at Theo Spark's, "The DNC's Orgy of Lies and Hypocrisy."

Cartoon c/o Theo as well.

Richard Trumka Speech to the Democrat National Convention

The ultimate Democrat thug:

FLASHBACK: "Big Labor's Lies: Richard Trumka's Bald-Faced Falsehoods on Wisconsin's Budget Stalemate."

Cecile Richards Speech to the Democrat National Convention

The CEO of the world's biggest infanticide operation:

RELATED: At Weekly Standard, "Democratic Platform Endorses Taxpayer-Funded Abortions":

And the Democratic party doesn't want to make abortions "rare."

Sandra Fluke Primed As Tool of the Feminist Left

I've got some entries scheduled to go live overnight, but until then, here's Michelle's earlier preview of Day 2 at the secular collectivist convention:

And at Michelle's blog, "Obama’s (Un)American Auto Bailout."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Cancels Interviews After Disastrous Floor Vote Clusterf-k

At Weasel Zippers, "Wasserman Schultz Cancels Interviews After Disastrous CNN Appearance Where She Denied “Discord” On Convention Floor After Jerusalem Vote…"

PREVIOUSLY: "Democrats Really Didn't Want 'God' in Party Platform," and "Oops! Democrats Restore Language on Jerusalem to Party Platform."

Democrats Really Didn't Want 'God' in Party Platform

I doubt these are the kind of optics mainstream Democrats had in mind. And frankly, by the sound if this voice vote, the "God" plank never really got the approval needed to be inserted back in. I simply find it breathtaking that one of the two major parties would even hesitate for one second to affirm the role of God in our national politics. But as I mentioned previously, the Democrats are a secular collectivist party bent on driving moral values out of the public realm. It's obscene.

And for the record, Dave Dayen at the far-left Firedoglake exudes the anti-God bias of the party, "Democrats Cave on Platform, Make Changes on God, Jerusalem."

And David Atkins, at Digby's Hate-abaloo, admits the nays carried the floor, "An explanation of how the Platform kerfuffle went down":

Note that the affirmative vote to approve the changes would have needed to be a two-thirds vote. And it's fairly clear from the audio that the ayes didn't even have a majority. And yet Chairman Villaraigosa ignored the will of the delegates and "in his opinion" gave it to the ayes. So how did this travesty happen?

More at that link above.

Clearly, the activist base of the party hates God and decency, and the party never would have approved the change without simply ignoring the preferences of the delegates. I'd be surprised if we don't see an epic attack ad pummeling the Democrats for their secularist extremism in short order. Shoot, you couldn't script a better outline for a monumental sledgehammer-slam on these idiots.

More at Memeorandum.

Oops! Democrats Restore Language on Jerusalem to Party Platform

The idiots restored "God" to the platform as well.

The New York Times reports. And the supreme idiot Debbie Wasserman Schultz couldn't even explain the epic clusterf-k to softball interviewer Piers Morgan:

Also at CNN, "Just in: Democrats update platform with Jerusalem, God reference" (via Memeorandum).

It's natural that a hard-left secular collectivist party would delete reference to God from the party's platform. And I'm not sure who they're trying to fool by putting it back in. And Israel? Mitt Romney was right. This administration threw the Jewish state under the bus years ago, and there's been no turning back. I'm sure slowly but surely all but the most deranged Max Blumenthal-style Democrats will realize it and GTFO.

Michelle Obama Offers Personal Tribute to Husband

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Michelle Obama pays tribute to her husband in convention speech."

And the video is here.

Mooch is hard for me to watch. She's the ultimate progressive hypocrite:

Well, Michelle Obama's done. And those cheeseburgers are waiting backstage!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 5, 2012

Teachers Unions' Alliance With Democratic Party Frays

So says the Los Angeles Times:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Teachers unions have been the Democratic Party's foot soldiers for more than half a century, providing not only generous financial backing but an army of volunteers in return for support of their entrenched power in the nation's public schools.

But this relationship is fraying, and the deterioration was evident Monday as Democrats gathered here for their national convention.

A handful of teachers and parents, carrying large inflated pencils, picketed a screening of "Won't Back Down," a movie to be released this month starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as mothers, one a teacher, who try to take over a failing inner-city school.

The plot is ripped from the headlines: California has the first "parent trigger" law in the nation, which allows parents to petition for sweeping changes to improve low-performing schools. The first parent trigger attempts have occurred in Compton and Adelanto; the former failed, and the latter faces numerous obstacles.

Parent triggers, along with other emerging efforts, have some Democrats questioning their party's longtime support of guarantees that public school districts have made to teachers for decades. Those efforts also include merit pay, charter schools, weakening the tenure system and evaluating teachers partly based on their students' performance on standardized tests.

"There is no longer sort of this assumed alliance between the Democratic Party and the teachers unions," Michelle Rhee, a leader in the movement, said in an interview. Rhee, a Democrat who is a target of the unions' ire, discussed the issues on a panel after the film screening here and one at the Republican National Convention last week.

"There are now lots of Democrats who are saying, 'You know what, we're for teachers and teachers unions, we support the concept of collective bargaining, but there are clearly some things that need to change, and we are willing to stand up and talk about those challenges,'" she said.

More at the link.

Two reactions: One, I continue to be astounded at the supreme selfishness of America's teachers' unions. It's never about putting the children first, absolutely never. Two, I don't believe for a second that the unions' relationship with the Democrat Party is frayed in the least. Randi Weingarten and her ilk have nowhere else to go, in any case. They can grumble all they want about movies and school reform, but so far their bureaucratic death grip on the schools seems very secure.

See the related report at the New York Times from the other day, "School Choice Is No Cure-All, Harlem Finds." Black parents are searching frantically for a good education for the children. And big plans for school choice, like Mayor Bloomberg's, often come up short, with devastating effect for families.

DNC's Debbie Wasserman Schultz Caught Lying About Alleged 'Dangerous for Israel' Comment

As I've been saying, it's non-stop lies with these people, the cretins.

Philip Klein's initial report is here, "Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Israeli ambassador called GOP “dangerous for Israel”."

That would be Ambassador Michael Oren, who denied it: "Israeli Ambassador ‘categorically’ denies DWS claim he said GOP was ‘dangerous for Israel’."

When caught lying, the DNC Chair claimed she was "misquoted" by "a conservative newspaper."

But that's not so, as Alana Goodman points out, "Audio Proves DWS Wasn’t Misquoted."

There's audiotape here.

Hey, the New York Times even picked it up, "Wasserman Schultz Comments Draw Denial from Israeli Ambassador."

This story needs to go viral. The Democrats are all about accusing the Republicans of lies. And yet here we have concrete evidence that Wasserman Schultz lied, and then lied about her lies, the lying liar.

Alana concludes:

Could this possibly get any more embarrassing for the DNC? Wasserman Schultz not only misled Fox News, she also tried to baselessly smear a meticulous reporter, Phil Klein, who fortunately happened to record her statement on audio. Not only did DWS misrepresent the Israeli Ambassador’s comments, she also inaccurately claimed that Klein misquoted her. Why would any journalist — or, for that matter, any foreign diplomat — take her seriously again?